Title: Punctuation
Author: T.S. Jackal-Bright
Rating: PG, probably. PG-13 if you're a squeamish boy.
Summary: Even little Yachiru has to grow up some time.
A/N: Is this too much? I never know.

He knew that smell anywhere.

Kenpachi sniffed and snuffed, like a huge hell-hound on the trail of something tasty. Frowning, turning his head from side to side at the dim meeting of two halls, he tried to figure out where it was coming from. It was fresh, that much he was certain, and in a matter of minutes he'd figure out what new wound produced said familiar scent.

It was really only a matter of time.

Still, it bothered him. Why the hell its copper-clear tang-smell wander-wafted around the Eleventh Division's headquarters hardly matter. The whole division tended to smell of it, to some degree, so that wasn't the real problem. It did piss him off, though. He thought he made it explicitly clear that any blood-letting on the division premises required his direct supervision; maybe in not so many fancy words, but the idea seemed well-conveyed and backed up with big, pointy teeth and a big, pointy sword.

There.

Kenpachi stopped outside Yachiru's quarters, the door latched tight. He could smell it coming from in there. Where Kenpachi would once heedlessly barge in, he now hesitated, though.

More and more over the past century the girl had taken to locking herself up, spending hours alone or out and about without her Ken-chan's sturdy back underneath her, carrying her to wherever they both were headed. He even saw her hanging out with some of the other ranking females around the Soul Society. When he tried to approach her she frowned and turned her back; while the other women weren't looking she turned and made little shooing motions with hand.

It weirded him out a little.

And now this! Yachiru holed herself up, probably having a great time making some poor bugger-bastard creature-feature bleed without him. Whatever happened to the little girl who lit up like an explosion whenever he suggested they go out hunting together? He needed to get to the bottom of this, right this instant.

Roughly shoving the door open, Kenpachi found the room empty and yet another door between him, Yachiru, and blood. Ready to kick open the second door and bust into Yachiru's private bathroom locked behind it, he paused. Something Captain Uohana had said to him not long ago clawed its way to the surface of his consciousness. Something about women and cycles and men-station and the like.

And blood.

There was definitely something about blood. With diagrams.

Backing out of the room, as quiet and unimposing as he could possibly manage, Kenpachi left. Maybe this whole doing their own thing from time to time was okay, really.

Honestly, who needed that much together time anyways?

-fin-